Airplane collision over the Dippoldiswalder Heide
| Airplane collision over the Dippoldiswalder Heide | |
|---|---|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Collision with another aircraft |
| place | Dippoldiswald Heath |
| date | April 17, 1945 |
| 1. Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing B-17 G-105-BO |
| operator | United States Army Air Forces |
| Mark | 43-39110 |
| Surname | Naughty Nancy |
| Departure airport | RAF Podington |
| Destination airport | Dresden-Friedrichstadt marshalling yard |
| crew | 8th |
| Survivors | 2 |
| 2. Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing B-17G-90-VE |
| operator | United States Army Air Forces |
| Mark | 44-8903 |
| Departure airport | RAF Podington |
| Destination airport | Dresden-Friedrichstadt marshalling yard |
| crew | 8th |
| Survivors | 2 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On April 17, 1945, two Boeing B-17 bombers from the USAAF's 92nd Bombardment Group collided over the Dippoldiswalder Heide in Saxony .
Both aircraft crashed as a result, 12 of the 16 crew members were killed. The other aircraft bombed the group from 14:13 the city a few kilometers away Dresden .
Chronology of the collision
At 0:05 a.m., the 92nd Bombardment Group (Heavy) stationed on the British military airfield RAF Podington received the order to bomb the Dresden-Friedrichstadt marshalling yard as part of the air raids on Dresden . 32 B-17 bombers, three reserve planes and four scout planes were to take off. Each plane received fourteen 250 kg high explosive bombs . The 92nd Bombardment Group met with other bomber groups at the assembly point south of Olbernhau and then flew towards Dresden. The two planes of the accident were in the middle of a group of 600 aircraft when the 92nd Bombardment Group was ordered to fly a 360-degree right circle. The crew of the lead machine could not see the target because of clouds and therefore could not drop the bombs. The group was supposed to sink 2000 meters below the cloud cover from a height of 6000 meters and turn around. At the beginning of the turn, the aircraft (USAAF serial number 43-39110, Naughty Nancy ) with the commander John W. Paul jr, actually flying on the left, approached the aircraft 44-8903 controlled by Arthur H. Huether from below and collided with it. As a result, the Huether plane broke under the pilot's seat. The rear of the aircraft was cut off.
From the perspective of the Paul aircraft, the Huether aircraft, which was actually flying on the right, drifted over the Paul aircraft. The propellers "ate up" the other aircraft.
Victims and survivors
The commander Art Huether and the 22-year-old copilot Frank K. Jones were able to parachute themselves from the 44-903. Six soldiers from that plane died.
From the 43-39110, the commander John Paul, the co-pilot Nathaniel Norman Shane and the rear gunner Pete Taylor survived. The others did not survive the crash. Lieutenant Shane parachuted to land near the village of Reinhardtsgrimma , where he was captured by locals and surrendered as a prisoner of war. An auxiliary policeman ordered bystanders to be murdered, but they refused. An SS man who had arrived and who has remained unknown to this day finally shot Lieutenant Shane.
The other dead were buried in the heather, exhumed in 1947 and buried in the USA.
Search and defuse the bombs
In 2013, three bomb craters were visible on the two-kilometer aisle left by the Huether aircraft in the forest. The remaining eleven bombs on this aircraft were found and defused on November 13, 2013 . It could not be clarified whether the bombs on the other aircraft were cleared after the war. That is why they were searched for in 2014. In March, June, July and October 2014, eleven bombs were found, eight of which were defused. Three bombs had to be blown up on site, one of which was located under State Road 193 (Antonsweg). The search continues in the affected area of the Dippoldiswalder Heide, as it cannot be ruled out that further bombs are hidden there.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Matthias Schildbach: The Bomber Seeker , Die Seite Drei, Sächsische Zeitung , November 19, 2013.
- ↑ The whereabouts of the 92nd BG aircraft (PDF; 178 kB)
- ↑ http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/18111 American Air Museum
- ↑ http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/13115 American Air Museum
- ^ Schildbach, Matthias: Mid Air Collision. Self-published, Kreischa, 2018.
- ↑ Eleven bombs defused in the forest of Rabenau ( memento from October 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , MDR Saxony, November 13, 2013, accessed on November 21, 2013.
- ^ Stephan Lohse / Franziska Viebach: Largest aerial bomb find from the Second World War successfully defused near Rabenau; LVZ-Online, November 12, 2013, 5:18 pm
- ^ Jörg Stock: Sächsische Zeitung, March 20, 2014; Page 6, "... and it went bang"
- ^ Bombs defused in Dippoldiswalder Heide ( memento from December 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), MDR Saxony, June 6, 2014
- ↑ Fabian Schröder, Jörg Stock (fsc / jös): World War Bomb successfully blown up Sächsische Zeitung, Sächsische.de, July 31, 2014, accessed November 23, 2018.
- ↑ (SZ / fh): Bomb rips craters in the Dippser Heide Sächsische Zeitung, SZ Online, October 30, 2014, accessed September 2, 2016.